I took this photo by accident, but it looked so much like a cell phone ad that I just had to keep it. For some reason I can't explain, I like it more than is decent.
I didn't do a whole lot today, mostly just sitting around and being sick. Aaar, I apparently caught some kind of head cold; no big loss, though, because it means that I'm skipping school tomorrow, thereby making for myself a two-day week. Whew, I work too hard over here.
The other Americans and I are going to start teaching English classes to the other college students twice a week. This is arranged through the school and is totally legit, and we should be able to charge at least $3 per person per lesson, thereby making fat stacks of cash in a short period of time. Booyah.
The Kyoto trip is coming together nicely, and by that I mean that I looked through a travel book and thought about buying train tickets. Hooray for preparedness! I'm seriously debating not bringing any changes of clothing - after all, I hardly sweat at all, and what little I do smells like a precious breeze from heaven. Why, I have to fend off offers to bottle my musk with both hands and feet like some crazy ninja kung fu master on PCP. More to the point, clothes are cumbersome and annoying. I think I'm going to go with some underwear and that's it. Think of it this way - at least I'll have some way of clearing out crowds.
Following the success of last night's korokke extravaganza, I decided to repeat the experience this evening. ... ... DISASTER! It was like some bastard love child of Murphy's Law and Loki possessed the whole kitchen, leaving me and my meal a single quivering mass of failure. Everything went great until I tried to deep-fry the little buggers, at which point Chaos stumbled drunkenly onto the scene, spilling disaster like cheap whiskey all over my tawdry dreams of a delicious fried dinner. I tried to get some oil going, but apparently heated it too quickly and soon had a small pot of oil and a massive cloud of thick smoke on my hands. I rushed the pot outside and set it on the ground, all unknowing that the porch floor is plastic and therefore quite ready to melt to the bottom of hot pots. Judging from the fact that the oil continued to smoke in the cold air for at least twenty minutes, I'd say that it was at most 10 seconds from catching fire before I finally took it off the heat. Thoroughly shaken by that experience, I nevertheless persevered and started another pot of oil going, this time at a very low heat. Problem was, this time I didn't let it get hot enough, so none of the korokke actually fried, instead just sitting in the oil sogging up as much greasy nast as possible before giving up hope and falling apart. I tried to salvage them by baking them, but there was no real aid to be found in the not-very-warm embrace of the weird microwave/oven hybrids we have here. I broke down and shallow-fried the last two, and those were tasty enough, but definitely not the same. Of course by this point oil covered every flat surface for a mile around and the entire kitchen level was permeated by the reek of burnt oil. About the only tasty part of the meal was when I went with the Aussie girls to 7-11 and bought some Pocky. Precious, precious Pocky.
The new release of "Short Sharp Shocked" by Michelle Shocked's own label, Mighty Sound, is just great. Of course the album is ridiculously good, and it also features a second disc with 21 live songs, including a fair amount of new ones. It's an incredible treat, especially considering that the album costs only about $13. The live album has a number of highlights, notably a very bluegrassy version of "The L&N" and covers of The Beatles' "Lovely Rita" and Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time." I nearly exploded with glee when I heard Michelle Shocked covering Johnny - was I the Buddha in a previous life that I should deserve this good fortune?
